I DID IT

More to come but...I finished the 1/2 marathon in 3 hours 9 minutes and 46 seconds! I am tired, smelly and can't wait to take a shower but I wanted you to know I did it. Thanks for all the help and encouragement along the way. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a race recap posted. :) SO HAPPY!

bummer

I am really bummed about missing Saturday's 14 miler. While most people would think - hey at least you didn't have to wake up early and run all those miles - I really wished I had. I did do 8 miles (again) - 4 at 5am before we left for New Hampshire and 4 again around 5pm after we arrived. These 2 runs were my first experience with hills. Since life on the eastern shore is F L A T, I don't know how to cope with hills much less mountains. The PA run was great - a little hilly but totally doable - other than the real darkness of 5am! The NH run - not so great. Started out well - some down and doable uphills. I ran until I started to get nervous that I wouldn't make it back up - which happened to be at the 22 minute mark. This made me nervous since I should finish 2 miles in 27 mins. I hoped I was not turning around too soon but as soon as I turned around and saw THE HILL I was glad I did. THE HILL was steep and it was VERY easy to run down. In fact I took very few walk breaks while going down because it was easier to run it. Going back up...not so easy. After attempting to run with my hip hurting crazy and my feet bothering me I decided to walk THE HILL and then go back to run/walk once I reached the top. THE HILL was almost one mile long (which was discovered about an hour later as we decended THE HILL in the car on the way to dinner). I huffed and puffed and stopped to stretch - mind you I am still walking...but I did reach the top. Several times I stopped looking up and looked at the ground so I couldn't see how far I had yet to go. I made it back to the top in 33 mins. When I returned my dad was just about ready to take the car and come find me...oh how wonderful that would have been when I was at the bottom of THE HILL. I stretched & took tylenol and learned of some new blisters (1 blood blister...ew). It was then that I decided 8 miles was going to be enough. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I could look down at a huge lake from the resort or that the resort's name was Steele HILL but I think I picked a bad spot to run! Who knew that I could have driven to the bottom and ran a fairly "flat" for New Hampshire course. Whoops! After driving to dinner - we clocked the run at 4.2 miles - very glad I did the right mileage without knowing it! Coach excused me from running more even though I offered to do a longer run on Monday when I return. I have to head to Hills to get inserts for my sneakers since that is what's causing the blisters! That alone makes me a little nervous - changing my show insides 2 weeks before the race but it's got to be better than how my feet feel after a run now.

Fast Forward to Saturday - I was awake before I would have been if I was at home. I wanted SO bad to be at the park running. Nicole and I texted a bit and I talked to get a few times. I was so proud of everyone but felt disappointed that I would not accomplish 14 miles and do our last long run together. It makes me somewhat nervous to run 13 miles for the first time on race day when the last long run was 10 miles a while ago (I walked the last 3 miles of our 11 miler and our 12 miler got thunderstormed out and never made it up). I've just loved this experience so much and to miss out on such an important day really bummed me out - even though I was hiking an amazing trail - Flume Gorge!!

The next few weeks - eating right, stretching daily (the only thing that's helped my hip), good consistent maintenence runs and a positive attitude! 13.1 miles here I come...

Off to the mountains

So tonight I head to PA and tomorrow morning off to New Hampshire for my family reunion. Saturday's run back in Easton is 14 miles. While I have a goal of getting the 14 miles in I am also prepared to not be able to accomplish that in the mountain lakes region of NH. I think as of right now my goal is to run 4 miles tomorrow morning before we leave for NH, run 4 miles Thurs. night once we get settled and another 4 miles Friday morning before the activities get started. That would end up being 12 miles in 24 hours. I should be able to handle that no problem - 4 miles at a time is not a big deal and with hills 4 miles should be doable. It will make me feel better to get in a longer run but not be so overwhelmed by having to take several hours to do 14 miles Saturday morning before our family hike. Coach said I'll be fine even if I don't get it in but I'll feel better if I do! Wish me luck - I'll be back Monday afternoon and it's back to work Tuesday. Oy!

It's a beautiful mornin...ahh ahh ahhh....

And that is was - weather was PERFECT for a run this morning. When I arrived at the park it was 69 degrees with LOW hunidity. Lovin it...and as Ms. D sang at the 2nd water stop - "It's a beautiful mornin..." I decided to run 8 miles rather than 6 for my recovery run. Since it's been a while since I've run some long miles I decided I needed to do a longer run to boost my confidence. At the end of the 8 I felt good and actually said to my running buddies that I could do another 5 if I needed to. I just hope race day is as nice and that I am feeling as good!
I will miss the 14 miler next weekend and so I'll attempt that on my own. I am bummed that I'm going to miss out on our BIG run - it's the final big run before the 1/2 marathon and I'd love to celebrate it with everyone. This week my goal is some longer maintenance runs to help prepare.

slacker

Not only have I been a slacker with updating I've been a bit of a slacker runner. So let's rewind to this past Saturday's 1 mile run. 1 mile huh? Yea - I know it was suppose to be a 12 mile run but we only did 1. We all gathered at the park at 6 (full marathoners and a few 1/2 marathoners.) Halfers didn't have to show until 6:30 since we were suppose to let our full marathon buddies complete 4 miles before we joined them. Since N and I were moving that day we had permission to start earlier at 6 and stop at the 12 mile marker. Around 6:10 we watched the dark clouds roll in and saw flashes of lightening. My memory reminded me that Amy said we would run in rain but not un thunder storms yet here we were getting the talk about taking cover in the storm. The word was that it was a quick moving storm and we should be just fine. Amy gave us the out that if we didn't feel safe we could wait the storm out or bag the run. Waiting it out wasn't an option since I started early for a reason - we figured what's a little storm so we headed out. After running for about one minute we saw runners heading the wrong direction - to Susan's porch so we followed and took cover for about 10 minutes as the storm progressed. It seemed to slow and Lea Ann came by saying it had moved off the other direction and we would probably be ok to start. We did start and completed the first mile before a rain really began and the lightening got stronger. Just as we were about to turn the corner a truck with a few marathoners in it came by with the car keys and said the run has been canceled. We RAN to the cars - drenched in rain and not sweat! We sat for a bit as the storm got worse and decided we were going to the bagel bakery and wait for word on how we were going to complete the 12 miler. The bagel bakery wasn't set to open for another 45 minutes so we stood in the parking lot for a while since the rain had subsided. We got word that we could return and run 6 miles and do the rest on Sunday or we could do the 12 on our own. I was already out of the running mindset so we decided to bag the run and try to do it on our own later. Fast forward a bit - move went well and smooth. We have some awesome friends who moved so much in our truck and their cars. I am so thankful! Huge thanks to Mom and Dad Barth, my Dad, Lea Ann & Family, Brett & Tyler, Donna & Becky.
Sunday - no running - no phone or internet so we headed to the perk to get grad projects done (Now I am done until September!!!!!) Then we had a Clay Bakers fundraising party for Nicole - good turnout and she raised over $100!
Monday - N, T & I ran 4 miles - T had already run 6 that morning and we punked out on the last 2 and decided to go to Plaza and get margaritas instead. YUM!
Tuesday - NO running since N got back from work WAY late - we hung pictures and now half the living room is done! :)
Wednesday - no running but we finished the other apt spackling and digging up our plants to move them here. I had to wait in the house all day for verizon to show up to fix our phone line since we still don't have phone or internet. The window they could show up was from 8-7 - 8-7....are you kidding me? At 5 when they still hadn't showed Nicole called - they basically scheduled us for Friday and said I did not have to be here since the problem was outside...apparently the online scheduling isn't real? they never had any intentions of coming Wednesday eventhough I got confirmation of the appointment. I can't wait to write a nasty letter to verizon - so far I've been without phone for a week - no internet (although i did discover that someone around here has their internet unlocked so that's how I'm updating you now).
Today - Ran 4 miles this morning and will do another 4 this afternoon with Nicole. That will in essence be an eight mile run so that makes me feel a bit better about not ever getting in the 12. Tonight is more unpacking upstairs and finishing things downstairs.
Saturday is our 6 mile recovery run (not sure what I am recovering from since I didn't run the 12 but ok!) Then I have to run the 14 on my own since I'll be in NH for that run. Bummer.

Ok..off to shower and run errands. :)